• DESPITE TODAY’S PANDEMIC-CAUSED ECONOMIC SLUMP, some 13% of employers are now hiring and 44% “cannot pursue new business opportunities because their people lack the skills,” according to latest studies by PwC and by Society for Human Resource Management. Pursuit of these jobs requires a more focused and aggressive approach, including: (1) Articulating a ‘solution-thinking’ skillset to potential employers, with a resume that top-bullet summary highlights specific relevant experience for a specific position level; (2) Staying on top of one’s area of expertise through reading, learning latest software, and remaining connected to relevant networks; (3) Consider offering to ‘prove’ skills & fit with a courtesy trial-run – perhaps pro bono or by taking a salaried job on a commission-only basis for a period of time. “Challenging economic circumstances should not dash hopes of landing a job. Demonstrating creative initiative can catch a recruiter’s attention during widespread uncertainty.” [FAST COMPANY – 8/6/20]
  • GEN Z, EARLY TEENS THROUGH EARLY 20s, are the first generation of ‘true digital natives’ with an unprecedented degree of connectivity thanks to technology. What has emerged are “four core behaviors, all anchored in one element: search for Truth and Authenticity: (1) Individual expression and avoidance of labels; (2) Support for Causes; (3) Dialogue to solve conflicts and improve the world; (4) Analysis & pragmatism relating to products & institutions. The implications of these behaviors differ from prior generations in several major areas including: * perception of Consumption as one of access rather than possession; * absence of distinction between friends met online or in the physical world; * defense of any & all ‘causes’ related to identity & rejection of stereotypes; and * belonging & moving between different groups.” Gen Z are the Influencers of the future. [McKINSEY]
  • “THE U.S. HAS HELD ELECTIONS UNDER DIFFICULT CIRCUMSTANCES BEFORE: wars, depressions, natural disasters, and each time voted on schedule. But the pandemic has changed everything – from how campaigns are conducted to how we vote to what we value, refocusing the nation’s attention and bringing new issues to the fore, prompting the public to revisit what characteristics it wants in its leaders… It has spurred a massive shift in the fundamental act of our democracy: how we select the President who will be charged with ending the pandemic’s destruction, dealing with its aftermath and shaping the nation that rises from its ashes… The pandemic has become a vector for partisan attacks and struck at a voting system that was already fragile…with challenges & changes that could throw the result into doubt and take weeks or months to count all votes… When a bipartisan group of academics & former officials (called the Transition Integrity Project) recently war-gamed a contested election, every iteration of the exercise produced ‘both street-level violence and political impasse’… The national mood has undergone a wholesale shirt in this most tumultuous of election years,” so keep fingers crossed for November 3rds outcome.  [TIME – 8/6/20]
  • TEACHERS ARE FAR FROM FULLY IN SYNC WITH THEIR UNIONS’ demands of political reforms before willingness to return to classroom teaching. Beyond activist issues and safety, an increasingly voiced concern is now over their degree of student control. “The majority of today’s teachers have become so convinced of their own righteousness, they view parents as complications they need to get around… Due to years of infiltration, coercion & strong-arming, activist left- oriented teachers now ‘own’ our public education system and have apparently become so comfortable & cocky in the position, they’re openly complaining that online class training will allow parents to ‘hear’ their attempts at brainwashing…which violates ‘secure barriers’ and ‘what happens in the classroom stays in the classroom’ mentality provided by the physical barriers of actual classrooms – including risk that, while conservative parents are the biggest problem, also leftist parents might not see eye-to-eye with guiding students toward the teachers’ ways of looking at social justice ideology.” These tortured souls have lost sight of the fact that a teacher’s job, in return for compensation funded through taxpayer-dollars isn’t to teach personal perspective of “morality or right or wrong, but to instill a level of knowledge about subjects necessary for the child to function as an adult in our society,” and hopefully a develop a process for how to ‘learn’ as their life evolves.  [RED STATE – 8/10/20]
  • THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK:

     “Over a million identified terrestrial and marine insect species dominate the planet – double the number as all other multicellular animal species put together – with several times that number reckoned to await discovery,” reports the Economist. Any real question about the earth’s likely evolution? 

      Yawning is a curious feature of humans and many other species, and also curiously contagious – i.e. when one person yawns, typically others nearby do. Why do we yawn? Either of two reasons: When lungs need more oxygen, triggered by carbon dioxide in our blood from having breathed slowly or shallowly – common when we’re tired, sitting still or confined to a hot stuffy room; or When pressure builds on one side of the eardrum, and needs equalizing by letting air in through a yawn (or also a swallow).